Addis Ababa

Addis Ababa has expanded rapidly across a highland basin where water scarcity, flooding, congestion and fragmented land development increasingly constrain urban growth. Peripheral expansion lengthens journeys and raises infrastructure costs, while river corridors and steep terrain create environmental risks that must be managed within the metropolitan plan.

World Bank resilience analysis identifies integrated land-use and transport planning, improved drainage, watershed management and more reliable water systems as priorities. Transit-oriented development can also help concentrate growth around public transport rather than continuing low-density outward expansion. The capital’s long-term performance therefore depends on coordinating several systems at once: mobility, water, drainage, land development and public space. Treating them separately would reinforce the same spatial fragmentation that already reduces accessibility and increases the cost of servicing the city.